A new trailer for Final Fantasy 16 has just arrived, which is loaded with new knowledge about the world of Valisthea, its kingdoms, and the mighty eicons at the epicenter.
Final Fantasy 16 is still planned for “Summer 2023” (possibly between June and September), but the exclusive PS5 looks to be something special. The latest trailer provides updates on the many warring kingdoms in the game.
We see a lot of new characters as well as more scenes with the ones we met in previous trailers. Special emphasis is placed on the Dominants, humans who can transform into giant, destructive eicons. These eicons will be familiar to longtime Final Fantasy fans as they take the form of summons like Ifrit, Phoenix, Odin, Garuda, and Bahamut, just to name a few.
The trailer also reminds us of how much Final Fantasy 16 differs from most of the last two decades of the series. The creator of Creative Business Unit 3 (which also controls Final Fantasy 14 and its extras) seems to be building a medieval world closer to the tone of the franchise’s earliest games, rather than the heavy sci-fi inclinations of more modern titles.
Eikonic entry?
We may still not know exactly when we’ll have Final Fantasy 16 in our hands, but this latest trailer makes it look like it’s going to be worth the wait.
As an avid Final Fantasy 14 fan, I see this as a sign of quality that so many of the key team members are working on the FF16, including composer Masayoshi Soken, art director Hiroshi Minagawa, and localization manager Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. Oh, and it’s great to see Devil May Cry 5’s director of combat, Ryota Suzuki, also lending his decades of talent to the game.
Speaking of combat, while I have loved every trailer for Final Fantasy 16 so far, I really hope to get something of the deep gameplay soon. We have seen quite a healthy amount of Valistea now, at least at the surface level. For comparison, we only saw short bits of the fight. It would be great to see a trailer showing what Clive’s hero is really made of (and any potential party members who can join him).